Arx Poetica is an online artist collective inspired by historical cultural movements, facilitated by the internet. This open-source platform fosters global and local communities for artistic expression and collaboration. By reclaiming the essence of social media, it promotes thoughtful engagement and shared ownership through user contributions in code, ideas, and financial support.
Arx Poetica is an intentional collective of artists connected through today’s online renaissance.
Like other art & culture movements of the past—everything from the Renaissance, to the Enlightment, to shorter-lived revivals like the lyceum or Arts and Crafts movements—Arx Poetica benefits from the technologies that make significant zeitgeists possible.
However, unlike past movements, Arx Poetica leverages the internet—as the media prophet Marshall McLuhan anticipated—to connect artists and innovators both locally and globally. To that end, Arx Poetica is a hub for local community meetups and participation, as well as a social media site for community building across the globe.
Arx Poetica is also an open source platform, born out of a desire to reclaim the essence of social media. Our guiding principle is to ride the momentum of three major waves of our time: Globalization, the Digital Revolution, and the Open Source Movement.
The world is in the midst of a global renaissance. Just as the printing press promoted the rapid spread of ideas, so too the internet promotes the rise of global content creativity and influence. To adapt a Pixar expression, “anyone can create.” Under the umbrella of Globalization, Arx Poetica aims to foster both global and local communities where a diverse range of artistic expressions can coexist.
While the Digital Revolution has provided a magnificent tool in the form of the internet and modalities, Arx Poetica seeks to moderate its rapid pace. Our goal is to cultivate meaningful engagement through careful technical guidelines and restraints, aiming to restore the essence of “media” in social media. We elevate quality, thoughtfulness, and depth over mere speed and quantity.
Embracing the Open Source ethos, Arx Poetica encourages a variety of contributions—from software development, content creation, and idea brainstorming, to financial support. We believe that this collective effort and shared ownership are instrumental in shaping the future of our diverse artistic platform.
—Walter Pater, The RenaissanceThe history of art has suffered as much as any history by trenchant and absolute divisions. Pagan and Christian art are sometimes harshly opposed, and the Renaissance is represented as a fashion which set in at a definite period. That is the superficial view: the deeper view is that which preserves the identity of culture.
We've made Arx Poetica an open-source project to embody the very principles we stand for—collaboration, transparency, and community. Open source is a testament to the beauty of collective creativity, much like art itself. By making our code public, we invite you to join us on this journey, allowing us to grow together and build a platform that truly serves its users.
Arx Poetica seeks to be a community asset, a digital space that nurtures creative minds, fostering purposeful art, culture, and connection. Your contribution—be it through improving our code, suggesting features, reporting bugs or supporting us monetarily—breathes life into this platform. We welcome engineers to pull requests and contribute to our codebase, ensuring Arx Poetica's continuous evolution and improvement. If you believe in our vision and wish to support it monetarily, we appreciate donations that will aid in the sustainable development of this platform.